An entertaining book that was a great balance of fun cooking skills and suspenseful whodunnit. I would recommend!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am amazed it is a debit novel! I hope this author continues with this as a series because I loved the main character and found him to be hilarious. Even though this was a culinary school, not a competition there was an edge between the students and it was fun to read. I loved the little culinary tips and recipes (I always tell people to keep their knives out of the dishwasher!) and I thought it rounded out the story in a fun way. I did feel that the vague lurking character of Johnny was unnecessary with all the other stuff, he didn't add anything to the story and wasn't even a particularly good red herring.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author Orlando Murrin, and Recorded Books for my copy of this audiobook.

Knife Skills for Beginners was a wonderful mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This book follows Paul Delamare. He's a chef who is asked by another chef, a celebrity chef and his friend, Christian, to run a class at The Chester Square Cookery School in London. Paul agrees to do it. Soon enough, Christian ends up dead. Paul is a suspect. But he didn't do it. He is determined to find out who did.

This book was so good. I definitely didn't figure it out, though the clues were there. Orlando Murrin does a great job of keeping you guessing as the suspects each have a motive. More people end up hurt or dead. The entire time, I was trying to figure out who did it and I could not. What I did figure out is that Murrin is an excellent writer and the book was a good who-done-it.

In additional the good writing and solid character development, the narration was fantastic. There was one female character voice that I didn't care for, but overall, it was a really well-narrated book. This book is great and if you love cozy mysteries with a little Knives Out thrown in, you will definitely enjoy it.

This was an intriguing mystery. I enjoyed the kitchen setting and the tips on how to sharpen knives and other tidbits that were thrown in. The characters were interesting and the suspects plentiful, which were difficult to keep track of at times. The recipes sounded tasty but were presented within the story so it took me out of it a few times, ruining the flow. I much prefer recipes in the back that I can find easily rather than in the middle of a chapter. I will admit that my mind wandered frequently during this one and it didn’t really hold my interest. The characters, particularly Paul, were not well fleshed out so you don’t’ connect to them. I may continue with the series if there is another one but found this one just so-so.

I liked it, liked the end. Loved the cooking aspect of it. Great for a debut novel but it was hard to fully pay attention and a lot going on at once.

Yes, this book was written by a TV chef. Apparently he was on Masterchef—I’ve never seen it. But unless he used a very secret ghostwriter, he did a good job! I truly have no idea why the ratings for this book are so low coming out of the UK*, or why the cozy mystery people have not come flocking (though this isn’t a cozy, it does have strong food elements, which those noodleheads** go apeshit over)***.

*It was first published in the UK 2/1/24, but it wasn’t released in the US until 12/24/24.

**affectionate

This book follows Paul, a chef who is in mourning over the death of his partner, Marcus, ten months before. His old friend Christian, a celebrity chef now, hits him up to teach a cooking course at a stayaway cooking school in a fancy old house; Christian can’t fulfill his duties this session as he now has a broken arm and cannot wield a knife, and whatever else would be required of him whilst prepping the foods. Paul takes to teaching the class with gusto, but he and all of his students get a nasty shock when Christian is found murdered early in the week, and it seems that one of the students might be the murderer.

It’s slightly unclear why exactly Paul starts investigating everyone, poking into backstories, and delving out secrets, but he does feel betrayed by his old friend, who it seems he didn’t really know as well as he thought he did. Also, he is a suspect as well, and in a mystery, there is no better motivation for solving a murder than proving your own self innocent.

I did listen to the audio for this, and it was highly enjoyable. Sebastian Humphreys is the narrator, and he did a lovely job.

***Further investigation has unearthed that it’s a combo of people feeling that the author/character was “too highbrow” for them, or they felt “patronized to.” And that the last 25% of the book was rushed and didn’t fit the tone of the first part, which I agree with, but wasn’t a huge ding for me. These people did not have an audiobook and were reading by e-reader. I think readers who listen to this by audio will not have a hard time with either of these things (the emoji texts are completely gone, and we just get mentions that his friend Julie sends them). As for the highbrow complaint in general, some people are smarter than you, and you shouldn’t take it personally. He wasn’t being a dick, he was just being himself.

My biggest issue with this, and why it’s not getting a full four stars, is that I did feel the ending tone went a bit too thrillery for what had come before. I would have much preferred a quieter confrontation. The perilous one we got didn’t do much for the story.

This is actually going to be a series, but I’m not sure I will want to read the rest. I guess we’ll see what I do when it becomes available. (A chef not cheffing but still solving mysteries? Kinda weird. Although I would like to see how the conflict with his stepson turns out, and if he is able to move on from his grief over his partner’s death, and I’m too curious for my own good.)

[3.5 stars, rounded up]

I really enjoyed this book. I think the setting is unique. There is an extensive cast of characters which can be a bit confusing at times. But they all serve the story and work in many instances as comedic relief. Paul as a chef and impromptu detective is believable and interesting to watch. Even in a moment of mortal peril he has time to criticize a wine pairing. I love him as the main character. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Paul is an out of work chef that has been offered a position to take over a cooking class when his friend Christian breaks his arm and is unable to teach. Paul accepts and takes over the class when shortly after Christian is found dead with a meat cleaver sticking out of him. With a school full of suspects, including Paul, who is the killer?

I enjoyed this cozy mystery. You can tell the author has a background in food and adds to the story telling. I liked most the characters, but there are a lot of characters in this whodunit. Some parts did start to drag a bit, and it could have been edited down a bit. Narrator was good and handled the large character list well.

Thank you to Netgalley and RBmedia for the audiobook for review.